Red Sox rumors from those covering the team…
- GM Theo Epstein said he isn't close to any trades, reports Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Cafardo lists Scott Downs, Kerry Wood, Kyle Farnsworth, and David Aardsma as potentially available relievers, but says "the Sox aren’t crazy about bringing Aardsma back unless they could do so cheaply." Cafardo lists familiar names on the outfield front in David DeJesus and Cody Ross, while noting that Corey Hart "is likely out of Boston's range." Cafardo does not see the Sox pursuing a starting pitcher.
- MLB Network's Peter Gammons chimes in on Downs, tweeting, "before [the Yunel] Escobar deal, [the Blue Jays] wanted [Jose] Iglesias for Downs." That gives you an idea of the Jays' initial asking price for one of the best available relievers; the Dodgers, Yankees, and Phillies are also known to be interested.
- Gammons also tweets that the Rockies turned down an offer of Jed Lowrie for Chris Iannetta. We learned last night that the Sox are not currently pursuing Iannetta, however.
- Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald confirms yesterday's report that the Sox are interested in Florida's Leo Nunez. However, Lauber writes that, "they believe the Marlins will require a hefty return" for the righty reliever.
- Adrian Beltre is not thinking about his next contract yet, learned WEEI's Alex Speier.
Alex Athopoulos has an addiction. Jonesing for another Cuban shortstop
don’t think its all that easy to just get Iglesias
Iglesias isn’t going anywhere for a 34YO middle reliever, not to mention, Iglesias is the Sox SS of the future, probably about the time Scutaro’s contract expires, if not even sooner. hang up all thoughts of getting him for any of that collection of relievers for this guy.. it ain’t happening. boston will go with what they have before moving him. Epstein is not known for making stupid moves. better target a GM named Minaya, hendry etc.. for prospects of this quality for Downs..
Okay, how about Downs for Ryan Kalish?
Sniderlover I hope you’re joking.
Sox got to forget this stuff, teams are asking too much. The Sox should do what the Rays did 2 yrs ago, with Price. Try Dubront out of the bullpen. Doesn’t have to be a permanent thing, but a good start for him in the Majors.
The red sox should look into trading for Sean Marshall of the cubs.
It would be extremely short sighted for the Jays not to trade within their division to avoid an AL East team getting draft pick compensation. First off, According to the Elias Rankings to date here, Downs is one of the lowest rated type A free agents, meaning there are a lot of players that can be signed by a team in addition to Downs that would push the draft picks received to the second or third round. Second, it is extremely possible that the if the Sox or Yankees acquire him, they will re-sign him, meaning they get 0 draft picks.
I also think Downs would be crazy to turn down Arbitration if the Yanks or Sox offer it to him. A middle reliever entering his age 35 season who carries a Type A designation will not get a ton of interest in a long term deal on the open market. Given his past success he is guaranteed to get a raise on the $4 million he made this year in arbitration, and a 1 year 5.5 to 6 million dollar deal is probably better than what he will get on the open market. Darren Oliver is a couple years older, but a decent comparision. He did not carry a draft pick penalty and he only got a 1 year 3.5 million dollar deal from Texas.
For all these reasons, I think the chances the team that acquires Downs gets a first round pick to be extremely slim.
I don’t see Iglesias for Downs as a realistic trade. AA has every reason to ask for a good prospect but the Sox are counting on this guy to be their SS of the future.
99% likely that this is just the Jays setting up early positioning, ie if people want to talk packages, then ‘B’ and ‘C’ prospects aren’t going to do it.
Then the Jays better hope he decides to decline arbitration come offseason and that the team that signs him doesn’t sign a player with Type A from a team with a worse record.
They’d still get a second round pick, plus the supplemental pick would be bumped up to the beginning of the supplemental round. I’d gladly take even the chance of acquiring high end talent over a couple middling prospects that you know wont be.
On the David Aardsma piece also above.. i liked it when he was a member of the Sox, just he was forced out because of a log jam when the BP was so deep way back in ’08 and John Farrell pretty much had worn a path between the dugout and the mound each and every time he was on the mound to calm him down. The guy would start to over throw that nasty splitter of his every time and Farrell would have to come out to get him to just throw normal for some reason before the trade for Williamson in ’08 to Seattle.
He seems to have lost some velocity this year also in the few games have watched also, no longer throwing in the 96-97mph range that he did when he was with Boston, but was 92-94mph.
Not sure would give up much for Aardsma either, he was just plain scary, though did like the guy for his potential and if could get him for a Reddick type prospect would be all for it.